


sitting out dances on the wall

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Banter, Casual Sex, F/M, First Time, Friends With Benefits, Fuckbuddies, Minor Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Pity Sex, Teasing, Unrequited Finn/Poe, Unrequited Rey/Jess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 17:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20727668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Getting over a crush by sleeping with one of your best friends might be a terrible idea, but Poe and Jess are gonna do it anyway.





	sitting out dances on the wall

**Author's Note:**

> I've got next to zero time to write these days but I'm continuing my goal of slowly chipping away at old WIPs! Title from Fall Out Boy.

The atmosphere around the Resistance base was remarkably cheerful, considering all that had happened. Then again, Poe supposed, the fact that they were settled now after so many weeks spent mobile in space and then moving from planet to planet just to keep the First Order off their trail as they searched for safe haven was probably reason enough to celebrate.

Their base was actually underground in a sort of hive of interconnected caves; it would take some getting used to for most of them but it wasn’t a bad safeguard against detection by the First Order. They had set up something of a recreation room, with tables and benches, where groups of off-duty Resistance members had gathered to relax. Poe noticed a couple of mechanics playing a dice game he didn’t recognize and a rather rowdy game of sabacc in another corner.

His attention was mostly caught by the couple laughing near the back, practically in their own private world. Finn had the most amazing smile, in Poe’s opinion, and Rey was getting the full bright brunt of it.

Poe was maybe a little jealous. Or possibly a bit more than a little.

Okay, he was a lot jealous, and he might have been sulking and feeling sorry for himself.

“Have a drink, Dameron, you’re killing the mood.”

Poe looked up as Jess handed him a flask. He sniffed it and winced; it smelled like the covert moonshine some of the mechanics brewed in the storage room off the hangar. “So you’d rather kill me instead? This stuff’s poison.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be better than you pining over Finn all night.” She slid onto the bench next to him. “You think I didn’t notice you burning a hole into his back? Try blinking once in a while.”

“It’s a nice back,” Poe said, and Jess snorted.

“Okay, fair enough. If I’m honest, I always kind of figured he’d end up with you, the way he gave you those big, adoring eyes. Thought you’d be nauseating us all with happiness by now.”

_Me, too, _Poe thought, but that seemed self-centered. He took a swig from the flask, against his better judgment, and passed it back to Jess. “Guess I should have known, after he went on about Rey so much.”

“You know what they say about crushes.”

“If you say anything about getting on someone new, I’m gonna ground you, Pava. Permanently.”

She laughed. “Hey, it’s just a suggestion.”

“Yeah? And are you suggesting the same thing to yourself?”

Jess went quiet.

Poe nudged her shoulder with his. “Pretty sure the reason you noticed me watching Finn was because you were so busy watching Rey.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe I’m only slightly less pathetic than you, but I’m holding onto that ‘slightly less’ part.” Jess sighed, her gaze on Finn and Rey as they leaned into each other. “I wish they didn’t look so damn happy together. Makes me feel like a sleemo for being sad about it.”

“Sure you can claim that ‘slightly less’ part?”

“Compared to you? Always.”

“That grounding threat is still out there, you know.”

“Who’d be there to save your ass, then?” Jess took a healthy gulp from the flask and offered it to Poe again.

He admitted defeat, raising it to his lips and swallowing. “Beebee-Ate, obviously.”

“Okay, that’s true.”

“You wanna play sabacc or something? So we’re not just sitting here like a couple of nerf herders?”

“Not really.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Poe went back to watching Finn. If he was pathetic, at least he was good at it.

Which was, of course, the moment Finn decided to look over and notice Poe watching him. He smiled, because he was great, and Poe waved and hoped he didn’t look like too much of a pathetic loser.

“You are so sad,” Jess muttered, and Poe took a bigger drink from the flask than he’d meant to. Jess grabbed it back from him and then proceeded to wave back at Rey, who had turned to see what Finn was looking at.

“Who’s sad now?” Poe asked, and Jess kicked her foot against the side of his shin.

“Maybe it’s me who needs to get on someone else,” she mumbled under her breath, but not quite quietly enough.

“It’s honestly sounding like better advice the more time goes by,” Poe said, not really thinking about it. “Or maybe it’s just the alcohol.” He eyed the flask Jess was resting in her lap.

She drank from it, much like a desperate bid for temporary courage. “Well, we can do that or we can sit here moping like idiots over our crushes dating each other instead of us. Or talking about how we feel about it, which I’m gonna proclaim as the worst option.”

“I don’t really feel like sharing my feelings with you, Pava, no offense.” Poe wasn’t even prepared to share his feelings with himself, to be honest. Mostly he wanted to ignore that they even existed.

Damn, he needed a distraction.

Jess gave him a faintly mischievous smile. “I honestly don’t want to share your feelings, Dameron.”

Poe looked at her, then at Finn, and back to Jess. He stood up off the bench and offered Jess his hand, arriving at a probably rash decision. (Then again, most of his decisions were rash, so that wasn’t anything new.) “But you might be interested in sharing something else?”

She laughed. “Damn, just come right out and ask if I want to come sit on your dick, why don’t you.”

“Who, whoa,” Poe said, laughing a little, too. “I was trying for casual. And, you know, forward but sort of ambiguous so you could willingly misinterpret me without me looking like a sleemo.”

“I don’t need you to be ambiguous.”

Poe rubbed the back of his neck. “So… do you want to come sit on my dick?”

Jess got up, very obviously not letting herself look towards Rey. “It’s either that or shoot something and the general hasn’t given me anything to shoot. Your dick it is.”

“This is the least flattering exchange I have ever been a part of.”

“Your ego doesn’t need any more flattering, Commander I’m-the-best-pilot-in-the-Resistance.”

“Hey, other people say that.” Poe shrugged. “I can’t help it if it’s true.”

Jess’ smirk let Poe know she got that he was mostly joking. (He was a great pilot, okay, but he knew a lot of other great pilots, too.) “Let’s go to your quarters before I change my mind.”

“You might change your mind once we get to my quarters. The bed sucks and I’m pretty sure there’s underwear on the floor.”

“Lucky I don’t want you to romance me.”

“I can probably still be romantic if you let me kick the underwear underneath the bed first. Beebee can play some music.”

“Yes, that’s exactly my idea of romantic, your droid watching us from the corner.”

“He’s very discreet.” Poe grinned at her as they turned around the corner leading into the living quarters.

“I can’t believe you’re still single,” Jess said, deadpan, and Poe ignored the twinge of discomfort her comment prompted.

So Finn didn’t want him. Poe would live with it. For now, he was just going to enjoy some fun. Right? Right.

He opened the door to his quarters and stepped aside to allow Jess to walk through first. He couldn’t help the sensation that this was all horribly awkward; he wouldn’t lie and say he had never noticed that Jess was attractive but it had always been in a casual, objective sort of way. She had always been his friend first.

Poe stepped around Jess to nudge a pair of underwear out of sight; her lips quirked in a way that suggested she felt she was being very restrained in not actually laughing. “You still got that flask?”

“I would say that it’s kind of offensive that you need to steel yourself with bad alcohol before you fuck me, but.” Jess slid the flask out of her jacket pocket and drank from it before giving it to Poe.

“Wow,” Poe said, “now I’m offended.” He finished off the rest of the alcohol, certain he could feel it wearing away the inside of his throat.

“Yeah?” Jess stepped closer to him, taking the flask from his hand and tossing it onto his desk where it clattered against his datapad. “How offended?” She tugged his belt buckle.

“Maybe not that much?” Poe’s breath hitched a little when Jess slid her fingers down behind the buckle.

“That’s what I was hoping.” Jess pushed Poe forward into the room until the backs of his legs hit his bed, and then guided them both down into a slightly graceless pile. She knelt over him, the bed creaking, her ponytail sliding over her shoulder as she leaned forward. “Prepare to be romanced,” she said, and Poe’s laughter faded into a kiss.

-

All in all, Poe thought, on his back in the bed with Jess breathing just a bit harder than usual next to him, he had to consider the evening a success. He was kind of tired, he’d laughed a lot, and he felt pretty damn good. Relaxed, even. He had almost forgotten what a stress reliever sex could be; he hadn’t had the occasion to remember in longer than he liked to admit.

He hoped Jess was feeling much the same way.

“Hope this doesn’t make things awkward between us,” he said.

Jess exhaled in a tiny huff. “Yeah, don’t go falling in love with me. You know what this was. Casual. No strings. A good time, just between friends.”

“You’re not really my type, no offense,” Poe said, meaning it jokingly, but he could tell by the faint tightening in Jess’ jaw that she was hearing the double meaning in it, the way the words were uncomfortably close to the truth.

They both knew what this was and why they were here together, and not with the people they would rather have been with.

“My type’s more metallic, with proton torpedo launchers attached,” Poe finished, aiming to chase away that clench in Jess’ jaw.

He earned a laugh. “I knew you had an unhealthy relationship with your ship,” she said. “Is Beebee-Ate in on it too?”

“You can’t understand our bond,” Poe proclaimed dramatically, smiling as Jess laughed again.

“Honestly, I don’t want to.” Jess scooted up the bed, holding the sheet to her chest. “I’m gonna sneak my way out while I can. Your bed really is awful.” She paused. “In fairness, mine isn’t a whole lot better, but at least it’s an awful I’m used to.”

“Love ‘em and leave ‘em, I see how it is,” Poe said with a theatrical sigh.

“That’s me,” Jess agreed. “Hope you like being used.” She leaned over the side of the bed to find her clothes and Poe looked away as she got dressed.

“I’m pretty okay with it.”

“Great,” Jess said, standing by the side of the bed and slipping on her jacket as Poe glanced to her again. She seemed faintly hesitant in a way that was unusual for her, and Poe figured she was probably feeling as uncertain of how they proceeded from here as he was.

It was one thing to say they’d had a friends with benefits sort of thing and be okay with it and quite another to actually go on that way. Poe’s relationships tended to either be dedicated and intense or casual flings with strangers he met in bars and never saw again because he just really fucking needed to get laid.

Jess was neither. He had been joking when he said he hoped it wouldn’t be awkward between them now, but he meant it, too. She was too important to him to risk this going badly.

Maybe he should have thought about that beforehand, but he was blaming it on booze and loneliness and his own confidence that he could always figure anything out.

“Weren’t you working on enhancing your ship’s thrusters?” Poe asked, sitting up and letting the sheet pool around his hips. “You want some help tomorrow? I’ll bring Beebee-Ate.” It was an overture; he was hoping it worked.

The hesitation slid off Jess like she was shedding an article of clothing. “Yeah. That’d be amazing. I’d love his input.” She smiled crookedly. “And yours, too, I guess.”

“You know, most people around here respect me. Because I’m commander.”

“Uh huh.” Jess turned towards the door, giving him a tiny wave. “I respect you just fine, Commander.”

“How’d you make that sound so dirty? That sounded dirty.”

“Have a nice night,” she said, amusement in her tone, and the door closed behind her.

Poe lay back on his pillow and sighed. His bed was still empty and he wasn’t going to wake up next to the person he wanted to, but his body held a faint ache from pleasant exertion and he was looking forward to a day of laughing over ship mechanics with one of his best friends.

So, he decided, all things considered, not a bad position to be in.


End file.
